1. Field Of The Invention
The present invention pertains to a collapsible batting practice apparatus, and to a plastic tubing structure for use in same. More particularly, the invention pertains to such a batting practice device which is adjustable in multiple dimensions so that it may be effectively used by anyone, and to a collapsible plastic tubing structure which is easy and economical to produce, and yet results in the batting practice device being very durable and rigid.
2. Description Of Relevant Art
There are many known batting practice devices. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,955,606; 5,042,802; 5,066,010; 5,097,985; 5,232,218 and 5,292,119 each disclose a type of batting practice device in which balls are delivered one-by-one along an inclined channel to a batting area where the balls are dropped or "soft tossed" from the delivery channel so that a batter may swing at the balls. Although all of such known batting practice devices are effective for their intended purpose, they all have disadvantages and limitations associated therewith, whereby they do not sufficiently challenge a hitter to improve his or her swing to a high skill level, and whereby they are excessively cumbersome and expensive, liable to breakage, and difficult to adjust. For example, each of the devices disclosed in the discussed patents includes some type of ball delivery mechanism which must be actuated to initiate the delivery of a ball along the delivery channel, including an electric motor disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,097,985, foot-actuated switches disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,066,010 and 5,292,119, a hand-activated lever disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,042,862, and bat-actuated mechanisms disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,955,606 and 5,232,218. As will be understood, each of these mechanisms adds a significant cost to the practice device, and also may become broken or damaged with use, rendering the overall device less reliable.
Further, each of the disclosed devices permits only a limited amount of adjustment, primarily adjustment of the height at which the ball is delivered to a batting area, so that the device becomes non-challenging once the basic ball delivery pattern is mastered by a batter.
Still further, although the known batting practice devices may be collapsed or disassembled to some extent, each remains somewhat bulky, cumbersome, and hence difficult to transport and store.
The present invention has been developed to overcome the disadvantages and limitations of known batting practice devices, including those discussed above, and to generally fulfill a need in the art for a batting practice device which is adjustable in multiple dimensions such that it is challenging for substantially anybody regardless of size or skill level, which is sturdy and reliable in structure, economical to produce, and easy to assemble, disassemble, store and transport.